Read the press release from LtCol Chessani's attorneys
here.
The Murtha File
"...they killed
innocent civilians in cold blood." Representative John Murtha (D-PA),
17 May 2006
“…the accused
must be presumed to be innocent until his guilt is established
by legal
and competent evidence beyond reasonable doubt.”
-- Uniform Code of
Military Justice, USC Title 10,
Chapter 47, Subchapter VII, Article
51(c)(1)
Interview with Mark
Zaid, attorney for SSgt Frank Wuterich, August 3, 2006.
MSNB's Hardball(with Mike Barnicle filling in for Chris Matthews)
BARNICLE:
Mark Zaid filed the lawsuit for his client, Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich.
Mark, you just heard the Congressman. Is that why you‘re suing him,
because of what he said then?
MARK ZAID,
ATTORNEY FOR FRANK WUTERICH: Well not entirely. There are some defenses
that Congressman Murtha could hide behind, and part of it is whether he
had met the speech and debate clause. In giving a speech or a press
conference over on the Hill could possibly fall within that, but he did
more than that. He took those comments and he went out on the road.
He went to
numerous media outlets, including this, I believe, this one and your
competitors, and said those types of statements, statements like, the
Marines killed them in cold blood, that they balked under the pressure,
that they were untrained, that they were not under fire. All of those
statements are false.
BARNICLE: So
you know what Congressman Murtha has said in response to the lawsuit, that
I don‘t blame the Staff Sergeant for lashing out when I spoke up about
Haditha, my intention was to draw attention to the horrendous pressure put
on our troops in Iraq and to the cover-up of the incident. So I would
assume, never mind the lawsuit, well first of all, what do you hope to get
from the lawsuit against Congressman Murtha, before we get into the
anticipated trial of your client.
ZAID: Ideally
an apology from Congressman Murtha. In fact, we would drop the lawsuit
tomorrow if Congressman Murtha admitted or indicated an apology to these
Marines, that he had over-reacted and he had prematurely concluded guilt,
which is what the problem is. His statement really says it al.
For one thing,
this is not a political lawsuit. We have no political motives. We don‘t
care about whether troops should be in Iraq or not in Iraq. Congressman
Murtha raises many legitimate questions in some circles about what the
situation is over there, but what he did was irresponsible, especially
conduct unbecoming a marine officer, which he was in Vietnam, to go in
public, prematurely, months before the investigation is finished, and
issue this statement and commentary that in fact he has prejudged these
individuals, and tainted not only the jury pool, but ceded the public
thought, that in fact these are cold blooded killers, when what they were
doing was defending themselves if a very tragic situation where
unfortunately collateral victims were killed.
BARNICLE:
Have you asked the Congressman for an apology?
ZAID: Not
yet. But one of the things we‘re actually going to do is we‘re going to
make that offer to him. If he apologizes for the comments, this is not a
case about money, he apologizes for those comments, we‘ll very gladly
withdraw the lawsuit and then let the investigation, the official
investigation, let those chips fall where they may.
BARNICLE:
What does the Defense Department, what does Marine Corps and Navy
intelligence, investigative services tell you about the investigation?
When will it be completed, do you know?
ZAID: Yes.
They tell us absolutely nothing actually. Every piece of information
we‘ve had about the official investigation has come from the media, or
anonymous, cowardly leaks from the Defense Department. They shouldn‘t be
talking to us until in fact there may be charges, if ever, proffered
against. That‘s what raises the issue. Why were DOD officials
talking to Congressman Murtha, who has no reason to know about a premature
or a pending criminal investigation into the conduct of these Marines.
BARNICLE: Who
do you think told them?
ZAID: Well,
he had said, in fact, that it was the commandant of the Marines, which
raises additional issues of command influence. If in fact Congressman
Murtha is telling the truth and I have a great doubt believing that the
commandant of the Marines, three months before an investigation was
complete, would meet with a Congressman and say you know what, my boys
committed cold blooded murder and are war criminals on the same level as
the My Lai Massacre from back in Vietnam, but if in fact he said that,
those people or those judges who will be serving in the Marines who are
overseeing these cases ...
BARNICLE: The
trial board.
ZAID: If
they‘re looking at the Marine commandant saying that these fellows are
guilty, well that‘s a problem with commander influence.
BARNICLE:
Your client, where is he right now? Out at Camp Pendleton?
He‘s not in
the brig is he?
ZAID: Not in
the brig. In fact, he was promoted in January of this year, once he came
back, actually before he even came back from Iraq and he goes to work
every day and does his performance and his duties just as he has for the
last eight years.
BARNICLE: So,
never mind, you don‘t know what possible charges might be filed against
your client. You don‘t know if charges will be filed.
ZAID: That‘s
right. All we‘ve known so far is that NCIS has been reported to have
completed its investigation, but will still do interviews and even if that
is true, the anonymous military officials who are saying charges will be
brought, they have no idea, because the NCIS does not decide whether
charges will be brought. They send the documents, their investigative
reports to the prosecutors and then the prosecutors have to talk to the
charging officials to decide. This is weeks away, so whoever these
sources are is doing nothing but feeding some sort of frenzy for some
private agenda.
ZAID: ...
prosecutors and then the prosecutors have to talk to the charging
officials to decide. This is weeks away, so whoever these sources are, is
doing nothing but feeding some sort of frenzy for some private agenda.
BARNICLE: All
right. So if charges are filed, I would assume they would be the most
serious that you could accrue against someone, they would be murder.
ZAID: I would
assume so.
BARNICLE:
Let‘s assume so. You‘ve had extensive discussions with your client,
Sergeant Wuterich, so would the defense, the potential defense of the
Sergeant Wuterich against such a charge, would it be for the American
public a clear picture, a clear insight in to the pressures that these
troopers, Marines and army soldiers, are under each and every day in
Iraq?
ZAID: Well, I
can‘t speak for all the Marines who potentially could be charged, because
each of them may have been under different circumstances. Staff Sergeant Wuterich, this was actually his first tour in Vietnam, sorry, in Iraq. He
had just gotten there. He had been in the military for a number of years,
but he wasn‘t under any type of pressure that I‘m aware of that might lead
to it.
I mean,
there‘s a number of obvious defenses. The best one being self defense.
They were under fire. There were bullets going by them. There had been a
bomb, an IED. that had kill one of their individuals, one of their
colleagues. They went into a house, and there were Iraqis with automatic
weapons pointed at them, who they killed. It‘s expected that in split
second decisions, they have to decide, is this a threat or not and
sometimes as I said, civilians unfortunately are killed. It‘s happened in
every war we‘ve ever been in, in the history of mankind.
BARNICLE:
Come back and talk to us about it when, if charges are filed?
SSgt
Frank Wuterich slander suit against Congressman Murtha
Video.
"...they killed
innocent civilians in cold blood."